


Old is New

by VirginiasWolf



Category: The Librarians (TV 2014)
Genre: Blood and Injury, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-27
Updated: 2021-01-25
Packaged: 2021-03-11 09:00:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,458
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28348797
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VirginiasWolf/pseuds/VirginiasWolf
Summary: A mysterious ally has been helping the Library for months now. What happens when Eve and Flynn finally learn his identity?
Relationships: Eve Baird/Flynn Carsen/James Moriarty
Comments: 1
Kudos: 9





	1. Chapter 1

Eve immediately takes off running at the sound of a gunshot, barely noticing Flynn close behind her. When she reaches the open area of the warehouse she finds her team standing nervously around an unconscious man.

“What happened?” Eve asks as she catches her breath.

Well, somebody wouldn’t go down without a fight.” Cassandra gestures to the unconscious man and Eve realizes that they’re going to need to get Jenkins and figure out a way to make sure the man forgets everything involving the artifact he had recently used. 

Before she can do so she is confronted with another problem. “Our friend took a bullet,” Stone states.

Eve takes a second to check the man for outright wounds and when she finds nothing other than a very swollen jaw she looks up in confusion.

“No, our FRIEND took a bullet,” Stone corrects. “Pretty sure it was meant for me, but he swooped in like some sort of superhero and pushed me outta the way. Knocked him out cold too before taking off. Left a pretty good blood trail.”

Stone is talking about the mysterious ally that has been helping the library team for months now. This isn’t the first time their unknown friend has saved them at the eleventh hour, but this is the first time he’s managed to get himself hurt in the process. So far he’s managed to stay unknown, but with an injury has happened Eve decides that will end today.

“Is everyone else okay?” When Eve gets confirmation she states, “Okay, call Jenkins. Flynn and I are going after our friend. He needs our help this time.” After a second she adds, “Tie up our not friend so he can’t reach his gun again when he wakes up.”

The trail of fluid is strangely inhuman. It looks to be the right consistency to be blood, but the color is all wrong; black instead of red.

“Flynn?”

“Yeah, I see it too. Fictional blood,” Flynn states when they are just out of earshot of the LITs standing in a maze of where the warehouse turns into offices.

This should be a relief to Eve, because it means that unless their savior died by gunshot wound in his story he isn’t in danger. Instead she is further confused, and she realizes she can hear masculine whimpering in one of the offices.

“Shh!” Eve debates whether or not to draw her gun, but decides against it. Both her and Flynn are immortal, and this person is their friend, isn’t he?

Still, Eve puts her body in front of Flynn’s as she pushes the door. A large figure is crouching on the floor several feet away with his back turned to them. A black ski mask that must have once concealed identity has been discarded on the floor and the man is gritting his teeth as he attempts to apply pressure to a wound in his abdomen, seemingly unaware that he has been found. Eve realizes with a sudden shock that she immediately recognizes him. “Moriarty.”

The fictional turns to them with eyes filled with a surprising amount of fear. “I’m sorry Duchess.”

“Why are you apologizing?”

“I’m afraid I wasn’t much of a helper today. In fact I’ve made quite a mess.”

“You’re the one who’s been helping us.” Flynn fully enters the room and Eve notes that his presence seems to make the wounded fictional confused as if he expects to be verbally torn into. Instead Flynn steps forward. “Can Eve look at your bullet wound?”

Moriarty whimpers again and looks up at them before nodding slowly.

Despite Eve’s best attempts to be gentle, a small growl escapes from his throat as she touches his side.

“There’s shrapnel inside of you. We need to get you back to the library so I can take it out.”

“I don’t think that’s such a good idea,” Moriarty states wincing again.

Eve expects Flynn to agree with the fictional about bringing him back to the annex, but instead he crouches down next to Eve and Moriarty and speaks in a gentle tone. “You’ve been a friend to us for months now. Please let us be a friend to you.”


	2. Chapter 2

Moriarty is exhausted, but he still squirms and panics like a terrified child until Eve coaxes him into taking a sedative. She knows that he would never intend to lash out at her while being operated on, but pain makes a body do funny things. Having him unconscious will make things easier for her too. 

Perhaps it will keep her from having to face the truth. Eve waits until the sedative has fully taken hold before she whispers, “I don’t think I’m ever going to stop loving you, but I made my choice and I guess we’re both going to have to accept that.”

Eve snaps on a pair of gloves before getting to work. This really isn’t her field, but Jenkins is being stubborn about even having Moriarty in the Library and Flynn disappeared shortly after bringing in the magical sedative. So here she is, alone with an unconscious man and feelings she really doesn’t want to confront.

The bullet is actually fairly close to the surface and is able to be removed fairly quickly, but this only serves to make Eve all the more nervous. She isn’t sure how long she sits watching Moriarty’s breathing before Flynn sweeps into the room.

“He hasn’t woken up yet?”

“Is he supposed to be awake already,” Eve asks feeling a bit of alarm creeping into her voice.

“Yes, unless I…” Flynn reaches into his pocket and pulls out a crumpled piece of paper. “I mixed the sedative wrong.”

“What did we give him?”

“A sedative...but a really strong one. He’s going to be asleep for a lot longer than expected.”

“How much longer,” Eve growls.

“Two to three days.” Before Eve can launch into a tirade he adds, “He’ll probably wake up feeling quite well rested although perhaps a bit sore if we allow him to sleep here the whole time. It’s umm...it’s a good thing I just finished petitioning Jenkins to let him stay.”

By the time Moriarty is placed on the couch in Flynn and Eve’s apartment, Eve realizes that she is also more than a little exhausted. In fact a part of her wishes that she could also drink a powerful sleeping potion, but it is now so early in the morning that she doesn’t even think she’ll have time to sleep the natural way.

Instead, she collapses heavily into a kitchen chair as Flynn goes to the fridge and pulls out a bottle of Irish whiskey.

“What are you doing?”

“I need to tell you something.”

“What is it?”

Flynn casts a glance at the fictional slumbering on the nearby couch before answering. “I had you give him a sleeping potion on purpose.”


	3. Chapter 3

“Jesus Christ Flynn, I know you don’t really like him, but you can’t just drug him so you don’t have to speak to him, and you shouldn’t have tricked me into helping you,” Eve can’t help but yell. Moriarty is virtually dead to the world anyway.

Flynn takes a drink of whiskey straight from the bottle before yelling back, “I don’t hate him Eve...I’m in love with him!”

That certainly wasn’t what Eve expected to hear from her husband and she can’t help but blink in shock before she responds with all anger gone. “What?”

Flynn sounds deflated too. “Before we met him I don’t think I was ever attracted to another man, but umm the moment I first laid eyes on him I knew I felt something. When I initially thought he was Sherlock Holmes I even told him I loved him. He may have thought it was hero worship, but it was umm...it was a proposition for him to join us. A proposition that I think I would like to make again.”

“Join us?” Eve suddenly finds herself snatching the bottle out of Flynn’s hands and taking her own drink. What he is suggesting wouldn’t be the weirdest thing she has encountered as a now immortal guardian, but it certainly is a lot to take in.

Of course Flynn doesn’t interpret her shock correctly and instead launches into practicalities. “Yes. Polyamory where a single male takes multiple wives is far more common but some societies do engage in the practice of a single female taking multiple husbands.”

“Flynn…” 

Before Eve can continue, there is a sudden knock at the apartment door. When Eve gets up to answer, she finds Stone standing at the other side. “Jenkins told me that you and Flynn found our friend. Wait, have you been drinkin’ whiskey?”

Eve can’t help but feel bad when she remembers Stone’s father, the sloppy alcoholic so she quickly assures him, “Flynn and I had a nightcap.”

“After our guest left,” Flynn states from somewhere behind her and she wants to point out that Moriarty is still fast asleep on their couch, but she assumes that there must be a good reason Flynn is lying. Perhaps it has a lot to do with what he had told her only minutes earlier.

“Is there something else you wanted to discuss?”

“Nope, just checking in.”

After Stone leaves, Eve leans heavily against the door frame. It hits her suddenly that no matter how weird this situation has gotten, they can’t leave Moriarty alone. Flynn may believe that he won’t wake up for at least another day, but they obviously don’t know exactly when it will be. “We can’t leave him alone.”

“Of course not. I’ll take the first shift.”

Eve briefly wonders if she should stop him because of how this extra time might further fuel what Flynn has already admitted to wanting, but she also knows the extra time will give her more time to figure out if perhaps what he wants is also what she wants.


	4. Chapter 4

Eve takes the afternoon shift in the apartment and plans to spend most of it cleaning without looking directly at James. Everything right now is just too confusing. She loves Flynn and she loves James, and Flynn loves James too, but can it all really be that simple?

_ “Real love is hard.” _

The line that she’d used on James all those years ago to explain why she couldn’t stay in his paradise flashes through her mind. Back then she’d told him that she didn’t think their love was real, and she wasn’t even sure if he was real. 

“You’re certainly real now,” Eve mutters as she finally turns to the sleeping form. Why did Flynn have to drug him? Then again, if James were awake he may have already taken off in fear leaving Eve to question if she’d ever see him again.

The sleeping man shifts involuntarily and manages to toss off the blanket that had been covering him before shivering audibly. 

Eve bends to replace it watching as James clutches at the source of warmth almost as if even in his sleep he is shocked that it has returned. 

He has been on his own for however long he’s been back in their world, perhaps even longer. She has read the books. She knows that there were no tears shed, even among his close associates, when he died at Reichenbach Falls. She knows that Prospero saw him as little more than an animal to be subjugated and then disposed of when he developed his own free will. More recently she knows, from Stone, that even when the bullet struck him he didn’t cry out in pain likely because he was so afraid of disclosing his identity.

“You deserve your happy ending too, and I’m going to make sure you have it even if it’s the craziest thing I’ve ever done.” Almost subconsciously Eve begins to stroke James’s scalp and play with his hair as she speaks.

Suddenly the apartment door opens and Flynn walks in causing Eve to jump. She isn’t sure why she suddenly feels guilty. She isn’t doing anything wrong right now, and if James wakes up and decides to be with them there will likely be things a lot more intense than playing with hair going on. Still, she feels a need to provide an explanation.

“He’s starting to stir more.”

“Hmm, that’s interesting. Perhaps his body is metabolizing the sedative faster than expected. Perhaps it really is a good thing we over-sedated him.”

James lets out a loud groan and Eve can’t help but jump back in surprise. “Is he hurt?”

“He shouldn’t be,” Flynn states but his eyes betray the fact that he is unsure, and he feels guilty for potentially hurting the man they both love. Anxiously he steps forward to stand close to the couch just as James gasps and opens his eyes, staring in wary confusion. 

As James’ breathing slows his eyes focus on Eve. “Where am I?”

“You’re in our apartment. Flynn and I brought you here after…” Eve can’t bring herself to say that it was after Flynn had purposely drugged him. “We thought you needed a rest.”

James sits up shakily, casting the blanket off of himself as he does so. “That’s very kind of you Duchess, but I really must be leaving.”

“You don’t have to leave. You could try to make the library your new home,” Flynn states leaving James with an obvious look of confusion.

“Why would I do that? Your LITs as you call them would be very unhappy to have a former antagonist in their midst and I have no illusion that you care about me...your distaste is plainly obvious.” James seems to be holding something back and the look in his eyes whatever it is seems to be hurting him greatly.

“At least let us check your bandages first.” Eve manages to come up with an excuse that should at least keep James here a little while longer.

Eve is in the bathroom looking through the first aid kit when suddenly she hears a strange noise followed by a soft masculine exhale. “Oh.”

“I umm I’ve never done that with another man before.” That voice is Flynn’s and this causes Eve to peer out of the bathroom in confusion.

“What exactly have you never done with another man before Flynn?”

Both men turn to her blushing furiously which is almost a hilarious sight. James is the one who finally answers though with a guilty look on his face. “It appears I may have completely misunderstood how Mr. Carsen feels about me. I’d rather not put a wrench into your marriage though, so perhaps it would still be best if I left.”

Eve suddenly hears herself speaking without thinking, “Or perhaps you could stay.”


End file.
